Using Ubersuggest for E-Commerce: Everything You Need to Create a Killer Online Store

Despite the growth of social selling for e-commerce, SEO keyword optimization is still crucial to long-term business success. Why? Because that’s how most customers find you.

Search traffic is responsible for 65 percent of e-commerce sessions. If you’re not optimizing for keywords, buyers won’t find you among your competitors.

SEO offers many other advantages. SEO offers many other advantages. For instance, it has a fantastic ROI when done correctly. 

If you want further proof of SEO’s advantages, case study after case study shows how a few tweaks can potentially get your site to the front page of Google. 

A few words of warning before I move on: 

• Don’t expect results overnight. SEO can take time to yield results, but it’s a valuable investment that pays off long-term. 
• Don’t let SEO overwhelm you. There are numerous areas of SEO I could discuss here, but let’s just focus on keywords for now.

Why Should E-Commerce Companies Care About SEO Keywords?

With an estimated 4.2 million e-commerce businesses in North America, there’s a ton of competition. 

To stay ahead of the curve, you need to do everything possible to optimize your site, rank higher in SERPs, and increase visibility. You’ve probably guessed by now, but one of the best ways to do this is with strategically chosen keywords.

For guidance, your chosen keywords should be:

• Relevant to your product and target audience. 
• Attainable in search results.
• Lucrative in terms of driving targeted, profitable traffic to your online store.

When it comes to finding keywords, you need resources to help you along the way. This is where Ubersuggest comes in. 

Ubersuggest is a free tool that makes it easy to research keywords and identify which ones to target. 

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. Let’s talk about how Ubersuggest helped our e-commerce customer, Portrait Flip, improve traffic and drive ROI. 

Portrait Flip is an online store that creates real portraits by real artists from customer photos around the world. Using Ubersuggest for its keyword research, the company increased its organic traffic by 70% in just two years and increased revenue by 32.33 percent over their goal. 

Perhaps you think that’s unattainable. However, there’s a simple reason behind the enhanced results: you drive more relevant, organic traffic to your website by optimizing your pages by targeting the right keywords.

How to Use Ubersuggest to Create a Killer Online Store

From SEO audits and competitive analysis to monitoring results and adapting your approach, plenty goes into running a successful online store. However, there’s no need to get overwhelmed. With the right tools, creating a killer e-commerce store isn’t complicated. 

Below are five steps to creating a killer online store using Ubersuggest. (link to each section)

1. Create a project from your dashboard in Ubersuggest,
2. Perform an SEO Audit.
3. Find the right keywords to target. 
4. Conduct Competitive Analysis. 
5. Create a Backlinks Plan. 
6. Track Your Progress. 

I’ll walk you through each step of the way. 

Step #1 Create a project in Ubersuggest

If you’re new to Ubersuggest, you need to start with the basics.

Begin by registering for a free account.

Once you do that, go to the dashboard and click on “Add Your First Project.” Next, add your website URL and name.

It’s also essential to connect your project to your Google Account to see how your keyword strategy is affecting your Google presence. Here’s how to do that:

• Go to the dashboard.
• Select the project you want to connect to Google Search Console. 
• Click ‘connect with Google.’
• Connect the account or select the ‘Use another account’ option.

Remember, SEO takes time, and there might be some trial and error along the way. Therefore, once you’ve set it all up, I recommend you use Ubersuggest at least once a week to: 

• Check-in on your SEO progress (you can use the different weekly alerts to help you understand where to focus your efforts).
• Work through the suggestions in your dashboard.
• See what your competitors are up to and take small steps each week to compete against them.
• Find new keywords to target on your product pages (try A/B testing product pages with different keywords to see which one ranks higher).

Portrait Flip did this and achieved significant success and savings:

“We were able to create and implement a clear SEO strategy with Ubersuggest starting in January of 2020 that helped our organic traffic take off. We’ve saved thousands of dollars on paid advertising by keeping Ubersuggest at the heart of our SEO, and we’ve watched our SEO and our revenue grow exponentially, too.”

Step #2 Perform an SEO Audit.

The Ubersuggest Site Audit is the best place to start with your Keyword Strategy. When you perform this analysis, you get a general overview of your website’s SEO standing. 

From here, you can understand where your website ranks in terms of industry-standard for optimal SEO health.

To perform a site audit:

• Go to the project dashboard.
• Find SEO explorer on the left side menu and select ‘SEO Analyzer.’
• Wait for the analyzer to create a report; your report sorts errors by difficulty and how fixing them impacts your SEO.
• Review your report. Pay careful attention to the ‘See All SEO Errors,’ on the associated tab.
• Click ‘What is this, and how do I fix it?’ on the associated tab. 
• Once you’ve reviewed the major issues, select the ‘SEO Analyzer Overview’ option. This takes you back to the site audit main page.
• Now, you’re ready to review the second part of your audit report, which details your desktop and mobile web speed. Use the orange circular toggle, to switch between Desktop and Mobile reports.
• Fix the issues, return to the ‘SEO Analyzer’ overview, and choose the ‘recrawl’ button at the top of the page.
• Finally, review the report to see if you’ve fixed the errors or if there are any fresh ones. 

Here’s how Portrait Flip used the site audit feature.

First, Portrait Flip optimized its results by focusing on the ‘Broken Link’ finder.

This helped the business understand where it was losing potential customers due to broken product links. 

At first glance, this might not seem like an important issue, but broken links negatively impact your SEO and the customer experience.

Portrait Flip also found the ‘Page Load Time’ report invaluable, as the company was keen to see if any added website code was inadvertently increasing its load times.

Again, this may not seem like a significant issue. However, speed is crucial for online shopping. Ideally, you want your e-commerce store to load within two seconds. Anything above that adds to your bounce rate and customer dissatisfaction and leads to lost sales. 

After fixing simple issues on the Portrait Flipw website, 98 percent of the revenue generated from its SEO and PPC efforts in 2021 came from organic search. 

Step #3 Research Keywords to Target

Now, this is where the fun starts. 

You can use the Ubersuggest Keyword Reports to understand which keywords to include in your content to drive relevant and lucrative traffic.

There are two main features to focus on here. 

1. Keyword Overview 

The keyword overview allows you to see how competitive a keyword is and its search volume trend over time. To narrow down your keyword choices, think of the general search terms your target audience might use when searching for a product you sell.

2. Keyword Ideas  

The keyword research feature shows you how people search for keywords related to your business and your products. It enables you to uncover valuable keywords that other competitors aren’t targeting.

How Portrait Flip uses these tools:

Content marketing is at the heart of Portrait Flip’s efforts to attract traffic to its site. For example, the business used blogging and posted regularly on its social media channels. However, these efforts weren’t driving traffic the way the company hoped. 

This is where Ubersuggest proved its worth.

• The Keyword Overview report enabled Portrait Flip to find relevant keywords to focus on and that prospects use in their searches. 
• Next, Portrait Flip optimized its blog posts and e-commerce product pages with new keywords. 
• Finally, Portrait Flip used the Keyword Idea and Content Idea reports to help them plan out their next blog topics. 

The results were exceptional.

Portrait Flip exceeded their traffic expectations in one quarter by over 27 percent—and that’s without any paid advertising. If you’re planning on using these reports, here are a couple of tips to get the most out of it them: 

Find The Most Competitive Keywords

Use the ‘SEO Difficulty’ filter to help determine which keywords are more competitive than others. Be intentional in comparing this with the ‘Paid Difficulty’ feature to help decide if you should pay for Google Ads against the keywords. 

NOTE: Keywords with high Paid Difficulty are usually lucrative. However, they are almost always more expensive.

Search by Location

If you want to attract a worldwide audience, search for global keywords on the ‘location’ tab. You can target your geographical search towards specific local traffic or by country. This can help you find unique keywords in different regions to target.

Step #4 Conduct a Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is an essential part of any effective SEO strategy. By understanding your competitors, you can learn what techniques and keywords they’re using to rank well in search engines and replicate their successes.

Ubersuggest makes this task more manageable than ever. Just use the following tools: 

• Keywords by Traffic: Go to Ubersuggest, enter the competitor domain URL, and hit “Search” to find the top keywords that the website ranks for. Note any organic keywords and monthly traffic, the domain score, and backlinks. You can also add your competitor’s URL as a project in your Ubersuggest dashboard for regular tracking. 
• Backlinks Opportunities: Discover what websites are linking to your competitors and get a detailed overview of who to reach out to request links back to your site. Here’s how: 

1. Enter your domain name or URL from your site into the Backlinks Opportunity tool. (Linked above).

2. Enter a competitor domain or a URL from their site. 

3. Click ‘search.’

You can also use the Ubersuggest Chrome Extension for keyword analysis directly in Google search results, YouTube, AND Amazon pages for further insights.

Here’s how you’ll see the data in your SERPs: 

You can also remove competitors or add them.

You’ll also see monthly search and CPC: 

Here’s how to use this feature: 

Create a Project for each Competitor: On the Dashboard, click “add a project” and add a few of your competitors to get a complete overview and consistent updates on your competitor’s ranking. You can easily remove competitors or add them. Here’s some more information on using Ubersuggest to spy on your competitors.  

How Portrait Flip used Ubersuggest’s competitive analysis tool: 

Portrait Flip monitored how its competitors were performing and what keywords they were ranking for. Specifically, the company used the Keywords by Traffic and Top Pages by Traffic reports together to get an idea of keywords they were losing out on. Using the information, Portrait Flip secured Page #1 on Google above competitors for primary keywords that drove converting traffic to their site.

Step #5 Start Tracking Your Progress

As you work on your SEO Keywords, it’s critical to be patient and track your progress over the long term. 

Although you might see results with your plan in the next few weeks, as I’ve repeatedly stressed, SEO is an ongoing process and it takes time to get results. Typically, you can expect to wait a few months, so if you’re not seeing immediate progress, don’t get discouraged. 

When you track your keywords, you can see which ones aren’t working and use some fresh ones to optimize your content. 

Then rinse and repeat! 

Keep testing and learning. A/B test different targeted keywords on product pages over time and track to see which performs best. 

You can use Ubersuggest to monitor keyword performance. Here’s how:

In your Dashboard, you can view SEO progress over a specific time. Plus, you can see your progress in keyword ranking and estimated traffic value.

How Portrait Flip did this:

As they tracked their progress, they found that most of their year-to-year growth came from organic traffic, which steadily grew once they started using Ubersuggest. 

Conclusion: Using Ubersuggest to Improve Your E-Commerce Store

One of the toughest tasks for e-commerce business owners is standing out from the competition. Gaining visibility, discovering the right keywords, identifying backlinking opportunities, and conducting competitive analysis are some of the most challenging tasks every online store owner faces.  

Fortunately, Ubersuggest offers a solution to these common problems, allowing you to enhance your e-commerce store in key areas. This allows you to increase visibility, attract targeted prospects, and enhance conversions. 

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E-commerce Optimization: 6 Steps to Boost Your Conversion Rates

For online stores, increasing conversions is the key to long-term success.

After all, if visitors don’t buy, then you’re not making any money! And with $7.31 trillion dollars projected to be spent on e-commerce retail by 2025, you want to make sure to optimize your CRO so you can receive as much of that spend as possible.

That said, optimizing your e-commerce store can be confusing.

Even if you’ve done everything right, from driving traffic to your website to running digital ads, you might still see low conversion rates. The average conversion rate for US e-commerce stores was 2.8 percent in the second quarter of 2021 (which is the most recent data available).

So what gives, and how can you push past a three percent conversion rate? E-commerce optimization is all about making it easy for your visitors to buy from you.

How do you do that? It starts with diving into your analytics to see where visitors are getting stuck. If that sounds complicated, don’t worry—I’m going to walk you through it.

First, however, let’s talk about why CRO is different for e-commerce websites.

How Is Conversion Optimization Different for E-commerce Stores?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) for e-commerce stores is different because e-commerce stores sell physical products, which can be more complex and time-consuming to purchase than, for example, a service – which has an average 9.3 conversion rate across the industry.

The difference in average conversion rates is partially because a service website might have one or two steps in the checkout process, while an e-commerce store could have five or six – meaning it’s all the more important for you to optimize your CRO.

This means e-commerce stores need to pay more attention to the purchase process, from product pages to the checkout page.

E-commerce stores have unique friction points, such as shipping and returns, which can impact purchase decisions.

Because of this, e-commerce owners need to take a holistic approach to optimizing their stores.

This might mean looking for opportunities to increase customer confidence through social proof and streamlined checkout processes.

Ultimately, e-commerce owners should focus on creating a frictionless purchase experience to boost their conversion rates.

E-commerce CRO Strategy #1: Add Recommended Products

Adding recommended products to your e-commerce store is a great way to increase conversion rates.

When someone visits a product page, they want information about the product and how it can meet their needs.

If you suggest additional products that might be of interest, you can help guide their purchase decision and increase your conversion rate.

Invespcro found that 37 percent of shoppers clicked a recommended product during their first return visit to a site.

Similarly, shoppers that click on product recommendations are four and a half times more likely to add items to the cart and complete a purchase.

Amazon, for example, recommends products based on previous purchases or items you looked at. This helps keep customers engaged with the site and increases sales.

They also use “Frequently Bought Together” prompts to show customers related items they may like.

Recommending relevant products to your customers also improves the personalization of your e-commerce store.

Website personalization and product recommendations can be further enhanced by using AI, trending data, and previous shopping experiences.

86 percent of consumers say website personalization affects their purchasing decisions. This is an e-commerce conversion rate optimization tactic you don’t want to miss out on.

You can add recommended products in several different ways. Some examples include:

• adding recommended products at the purchase stage, somewhere above or under their shopping cart
• adding recommended products in the confirmation/transaction email you send to customers when they make a purchase
• add recommended products on search results pages for similar/related products

The steps for adding recommended products will vary based on your e-commerce platform. Here are instructions for the most popular platforms:

• Shopify
• Big Commerce
• WooCommerce

E-commerce CRO Strategy #2: Make Sure Your Product Pages Shine

High-quality product pages are key to your e-commerce success.

When customers can see what they’re buying and get an idea of how it will look and function in their lives, they feel more confident about the purchase.

Since your visitors can’t touch and feel your products, you need to make sure the media you use on each product page does them justice.

Start with high-quality photos that depict the product from various angles at different levels of detail.

Make sure your photos are high enough resolution to support a zoom feature to show texture and details.

If you have the space, add a 360-degree view of the product so customers can get a complete look.

If your e-commerce store sells clothes or accessories, use models to show how the items look on various body types.

Besides images, consider using demo videos or explainer videos to show your products in action.

Remember, you don’t have to generate all the content yourself either.

Encourage customers to submit visual content or source your images and videos from social media, which perform double duty as social proof, which will help increase conversions.

Product descriptions that highlight key features are also key to getting shoppers to buy.

Be sure to include all pertinent information, such as size, color, and fabric content.

Use clear and concise language to avoid confusion and highlight the unique features of your products.

E-commerce CRO Strategy #3: Streamline Navigation

You can’t make sales if site visitors can’t find what they want.

Your site’s navigation is often the first place shoppers look if they have a specific product or category in mind.

Navigation that is confusing, too complex, or difficult to understand will cost you sales and customers. In fact, a HubSpot case study found that simplifying or removing navigation elements from middle-of-the-funnel landing pages resulted in a 16-28% increased conversion rate!

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for e-commerce website navigation. The best way to design a website menu depends on the nature of your products and how your customers like to organize information.

Here are a few steps for creating effective e-commerce website navigation:

1. Use heat maps or do user testing to find how and where users click.
2. Prominently display categories on every page.
3. Include clear labels and concise descriptions for all menu items.
4. Create intuitive and logical menus based on how your customers browse your site.
5. Avoid burying essential menu items in nested sub-menus.
6. Test different navigation structures to see what works best for your customers.

An example of great e-commerce navigation comes from Apple.

If you have a large number of products, a drop-down menu that lists everything can be overwhelming.

If Apple included all its products and services in a drop-down menu, its website would have very clunky and confusing navigation.

Not only would that work against the brand’s minimalist image, but it’d also be hard for customers to find what they need.

Instead, Apple opts for clean top navigation with no dropdown or secondary menu item:

When visitors click on a top navigation item, they’re directed to a menu page that lists options within the category:

Doing away with a complicated drop-down also helps streamline the mobile user experience, which is increasingly important.

Clear navigation also has SEO and UX benefits.

Providing a clear path to the products customers are looking for makes it easier for shoppers to find what they need on your site—which increases sales.

This can help improve your search engine ranking, as Google (and other search engines) favor sites that are easy to navigate.

If you’re unsure if your site is easy to navigate, or have seen drop-off points in your analytics, consider using a heat map tool like Crazy Egg to see where people click on your pages.

You can also use a tool like Optimizely to test different versions of your navigation and see which one leads to more conversions.

Once you’ve identified any potential drop-off points, it’s time to start making changes!

E-commerce CRO Strategy #4: Add a Wish List or Favorite Option

Wish lists and favorite options allow users to save items they might buy later.

This is a great way to increase conversions because it gives users the opportunity to “test drive” your site and come back later to buy products they love.

Creating a wish list also requires customers to create an account for your e-commerce store.

This allows you to offer relevant promotions and gather customer data to improve user experience and increase sales.

Wish lists can help you:

• alert customers about special offers available for items on their wish lists
• deliver targeted content based on items they’ve shown interest in
• identify retail trends and seasonal activities to improve demand forecasting
• understand what your customers are looking for and offer similar products

Research from Google found 40 percent of online shoppers think their experience would be better if they were offered a wish list.

In addition, make it easy for your customers to create wish lists on other platforms. For example, enable “Pin It” buttons so visitors can share your products on their Pinterest wish lists.

Or, promote the use of the “Save” feature on Instagram and Facebook.

There are many ways to make it easy for your customers to save products they are interested in.

If you use Shopify as your e-commerce platform, you have two options for adding a wish list feature: add custom code to your site, or add a wishlist app, like Wishlist Hero.

On BigCommerce, all you need to do is enable wishlists in your shop’s settings.

WooCommerce offers an extension so you can allow users to add items to their wishlist when they shop your store.

E-commerce CRO Strategy #5: Streamline the Check Out Process

According to the Baymard Institute, 69.82 percent of e-commerce carts are abandoned at checkout.

This rate increases on mobile and desktop devices, which have some of the highest cart abandonment rates.

Cart abandonment rates by device:

• desktop: 66.1 percent
• mobile: 80.6 percent

To avoid losing customers at the checkout, make the process as quick and easy as possible.

This means offering clear and concise shipping information, providing a guest checkout option, and ensuring all payment methods are available.

You should also ensure the checkout process is easy to navigate with all required information requested upfront.

Here are a few ways to streamline the checkout process:

• Use a single-page checkout: This will keep customers from going through multiple pages to check out.
• Save billing and shipping information: Customers hate having to enter their information each time they make a purchase, so make their checkout process easier by saving and auto-filling their information.
• Use a progress bar: Let customers know how far along they are in the checkout process so they don’t get impatient.
• Offer a shipping calculator: This will help customers determine how much their shipping will cost and whether or not they want to continue with the purchase.
• Personalize page to their local currency: Customers feel more comfortable when they’re making a purchase in their local currency.
• Reduce clicks: Try to make the checkout process straightforward, so customers don’t get frustrated and leave.
• Provide order confirmation: Once a customer has completed their purchase, send them an order confirmation to let them know everything went through successfully.
• Include trust symbols: Add trust symbols like security seals to reassure customers their information is safe and their purchase is legitimate.

Remember, the easier you can make it for customers to buy, the more likely they are to convert!

E-commerce CRO Strategy #6: Add More (and Better) Social Proof

Social proof is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal to boost e-commerce conversion rates.

Adding social proof elements to your site increases confidence in potential buyers and nudges them towards completing a purchase.

Some effective ways to add social proof include testimonials from happy customers, reviews from unbiased third-party, or user-generated content of your product in action.

According to Trustpilot, 89 percent of global consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.

This implies reviews are a regular part of a consumer’s purchase journey, but they can also be a deciding factor in the purchase process.

That said, reviews don’t just exist on your product pages.

Other digital channels such as social media, email marketing, and even paid search can be used to display reviews.

For example, brands that work with influencers can benefit from video and social posts that include reviews.

This can include YouTube reviews, unboxing videos, or branded TikTok promotions.

There are a few things you can do to increase your reviews, including:

• asking customers for reviews after purchase.
• making it easy for customers to leave reviews on your site
• including social media icons on your product pages that link to your profiles
• using review aggregators like Trustpilot and Bazaarvoice
• reaching out to influencers for social content creation
• promoting UGC on your social channels

Frequently Asked Questions About E-commerce CRO Strategies

How can I improve my e-commerce conversion rate?

To increase your e-commerce CRO, consider adding recommended products, making sure your product pages shine, implementing simple navigation, providing a wish list option, streamlining the checkout process, and adding social proof.

How are e-commerce conversions calculated?

E-commerce conversions are the total number of visits to your e-commerce site divided by the number of purchases.

What is a good e-commerce conversion rate?

The average e-commerce conversion rate varies depending on the type of product you sell but is typically around two percent. Some of the top e-commerce sites have conversion rates between 5 and 10 percent.

What is CRO in e-commerce?

E-commerce conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the process of making adjustments to your site with the goal of increasing the percentage of visits that result in a purchase. In e-commerce specifically, CRO is focused on optimizing the product page, checkout process, and overall user experience.

Conclusion: E-commerce Conversion Optimization

E-commerce conversion optimization is key to driving growth for your business.

While blogs and service sites rely on traffic from search engines and social media, e-commerce sites need to optimize SEO and every step of the buying process.

When starting an e-commerce conversion rate optimization strategy, start by looking into your customer data and website analytics. Use heat mapping tools to see where customers are clicking and what they scroll past.

Once you understand what is and isn’t working, start making changes to your website.

Test each change to make sure it improves conversion rates before rolling out the change to all visitors.

What CRO strategies have you used to boost e-commerce sales?

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5 Types of Marketing Organization Structures That Will Fuel Your Growth

Successful marketing requires a focused strategy and an outstanding team to bring it all together. However, introducing an effective marketing organization structure can take your business to the next level.

With a solid marketing structure in place, your staff knows exactly what is expected of them. With everyone clear on their jobs and their roles in the company’s success, everything operates more smoothly, and it enables your team to work in unison.

However, not all business models are suitable for all companies. If you want to choose the right marketing organization structure, you need to know which type is best for your business.

How do you choose? Let’s talk about the five most common structures, how they work, and the pros and cons of each one.

What Is a Marketing Organizational Structure?

A marketing organizational structure is the setup of a company’s marketing department. It determines the leadership chain and sets out your business’s goals. It also defines employee roles, establishes employee structure, and organizes teams.

Organizational structures in marketing come in many shapes and sizes, but they all serve the same purpose: to create a system that enables the marketing department to function effectively and achieve its goals.

As Gartner’s Marketing Organization Survey 2020 notes, marketers are continuing to strive to create “more effective and responsive organizations” while minimizing disruption.

According to their research, 27 percent of marketers use functional marketing organization structures in their business.

Why a Marketing Organizational Structure Is Important

Setting up a structure benefits your company in multiple ways, empowering employers, allowing better focus, and enabling agility. Let’s look at this in more detail.

Improves Agility

Today’s businesses need to be agile. Agility is essential in fast-changing sectors, allowing your team to enhance efficiency, prioritize workloads, create relevant products, and allocate budgets more effectively. It also makes it easier to shift when technology, trends, or Google’s Algorithms change.

Agile marketing is increasing in areas like content creation and creative services, with 77 percent of businesses taking this approach.

Empowers Your Employees

If you want your business to succeed, you need the best people for the job. A functional marketing organization structure groups your team based on skills, ensuring you have the right person for each job and they have the support they need.

When employees are in positions that fit their skills and the support they need, they are empowered to succeed—which improves loyalty and your bottom line.

Improve Employee Focus

When employees have clear goals, it’s easier for them to concentrate on their tasks. When every employee on the marketing team is working with the same focus, it streamlines the process and enables collaboration.

Additionally, focus keeps team members engaged. This is crucial because, according to Gallup, engagement increases productivity by 18 percent. Further, it increases profitability by 23 percent, while decreasing absenteeism by 81 percent.

5 Types of Marketing Organizational Structures

There are several types of marketing organizational structures. Each model has its own advantages and disadvantages, which we detail in this section. Keep in mind what works well for your business may not be suitable for someone else.

A company’s structure depends on its size, products, customers, and type. Below, we’ll cover the most common systems and who should consider using them.

1. Functional Marketing Organizational Structure

A functional marketing organizational structure describes a company’s design and is built around the marketing functions it has to perform. As detailed in the intro, research by Gartner shows 27 percent of marketers use this model.

The functional structure allows for clear communication and cooperation between different departments. It also makes it easy to identify and assign specific tasks to individual employees.

It looks like this:

This type of structure allows for greater specialization and expertise within the marketing function, leading to improved efficiency and effectiveness in marketing operations.

Amazon uses this structure for its e-commerce business because it’s well-suited to the sector. Additionally, the functional marketing organization structure is favored by larger organizations and is ideal for companies with a stable environment.

Despite the positives, this structure can lead to communication breakdowns, decreased creativity, and inflexibility. Additionally, it may be difficult to move people around within a functional frame, potentially impacting the company’s ability to respond quickly to market changes.

Finally, functional structures can be difficult to manage when a business grows too large.

2. Segmented Marketing Organizational Structure

Segmented marketing organizational structures allow firms to tailor their marketing efforts to specific customer segments. For each segment of customers, a different team is responsible for understanding their needs and creating tailored marketing programs.

The structure usually works well for companies with a large customer base and a complex sales process. Businesses can ensure customers are constantly engaged, and it allows the streamlining of communication between different departments.

Additionally, organizations using this model can decide how best to segment depending on their aims and the resulting customer insights.

Advantages of this model include:

1. Improved customer engagement due to increased focus.
2. Improved communication and collaboration due to smaller, more focused teams.
3. Increased efficiency due to specialization.
4. The ability to spot new trends faster.
5. Customer trust through relationship building.

However, this structure can also be costly because it requires multiple teams with different skills and knowledge.

3. Product Marketing Organizational Structure

Product marketing teams have a multitude of tasks, including target audience research, content marketing, and analytics. Then there are co-branding partnerships to consider, with research showing 71 percent of consumers enjoy multiple brands working together to make a unique product.

With so much going on, what’s the best way to coordinate? By introducing a product marketing organization structure.

In this model, each group has its team of marketers responsible for developing and executing the marketing strategy for their specific product line. A product marketing organizational structure is the preferred model for businesses with different lines of products/services and looks like this:

This model allows organizations to respond to changing trends and meet customer needs while concentrating on targeted market sectors.

However, it can be difficult to track and measure the effectiveness of the marketing activities due to a lack of central control and duplicate roles in different divisions. To work around this challenge, businesses may consider grouping similar products together.

4. Digital Marketing Organizational Structure

A digital marketing organizational structure is essential for any company looking to create an online presence. If your business has a dedicated team to handle all digital marketing tasks, you can make and implement a cohesive strategy to reach your target audience.

The structure of a digital marketing department varies by company size but often includes a mix of people with various backgrounds and skillsets.

With a digital marketing organization structure, the company can have specialized teams that focus on different aspects of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine advertising (PPC), graphic design, and content marketing.

This specialization allows each team to become an expert in their area of focus, which leads to better results for the company.

Depending on which model you use, your structure might look like this:

You might also choose to have different organizations for paid versus organic, social versus content, and so forth.

5. Hybrid Marketing Organizational Structure

In today’s business world, companies need to adapt to the ever-changing market. One way to do this is through a hybrid or matrix marketing organizational structure. This structure allows companies to have the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of both functional and divisional systems.

Both of these structures have their advantages. For instance, a functional structure works on a centralized basis, with each department reporting to a single leader. This allows for better communication and coordination between departments.

By contrast, a divisional structure is centralized, with each department having its own head and reports to a different leader. This allows for more local decision-making but can lead to duplication of efforts and coordination problems between departments.

In practice, your hybrid/matrix marketing organizational structure might look something like this:

The flexibility of the hybrid model means it’s enormously popular among businesses, with 72 percent of employees working in matrixed teams.

A big advantage of a hybrid marketing organization is they tend to be more responsive to changes in the market. Because it is flexible, it can quickly adapt to new conditions.

However, a hybrid structure can lead to conflict between departments or divisions, and it’s sometimes hard for departments to coordinate. Gallup’s research also uncovered a lot of overwhelm with the hybrid model, with 45 percent of employees saying they spend most of their day responding to requests from coworkers.

Companies often use the hybrid model in dynamic environments which move from project to project.

More Tips to Pick an Organizational Structure

The market organizational structures listed above are among the most popular, but there are more you could choose from.

For instance, a linear organization structure is a management style where all employees and managers report to one boss.

This type of organization is common in small businesses and marketing organizations. The linear organization structure is easy to understand and can be effective when the company is small, and everyone reports to the same person.

In a marketing firm, you can use the linear form to control the flow of information from the top down. However, this can also be limiting because it does not allow for horizontal communication among employees.

Finally, projectized organization structures are organizational structures in which specific, temporary projects are given to their departments that report directly to top management. In businesses with high fluctuation in workloads, this type of structure makes it possible to quickly set up and disband project-specific teams as needed.

A typical projectized organizational structure would look something like this:

When choosing an organizational structure, think about both your current needs and your future needs. If you plan to launch several products in the next year, for example, it makes sense to create a product-based marketing structure from the start.

Marketing Organization Structures Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best marketing organizational structure for small businesses?

Each business works differently, meaning which system works well for one may not work for another. The linear structure, which has one leader, is the most common. You could choose from several types, including functional, matrix, or divisional.

What is the best marketing organizational structure for B2B businesses?

To keep things simple, consulting firm the Pedowitz Group suggests a basic structure for a B2B marketing organization structure to focus on tasks like content and digital services, digital demand generation, and reporting to a CMO. There is no “one size fits all” structure for a business: you need to begin by looking at your business’s overall aims and current strategy. To guide you, the Edward Lowe Foundation has some great tips.

What is the simplest marketing organizational structure?

The linear structure is the most basic model and the functional structure is the most common and also easy to implement.

How long does it take to set up a marketing organizational structure?

It varies depending on the size of your business, the type of structure you go with, your goals, and your current strategy. It can take weeks or months to get it right, and then you need to review your structure regularly to make sure it works for your goals.

Should I consider freelancers and contractors in my marketing organizational structure?

Yes, consider all options when structuring your team. This includes both freelancers and contractors. Freelancers can be an excellent option for short-term projects or for filling gaps in your team’s skill set. Contractors can be a good option for long-term projects.

Conclusion: Marketing Organization Structures That Fuel Growth

The structure of an organization’s marketing department can significantly impact its overall performance.

The best structure for your business will depend on the products or services you offer, the size of your company, and your geographical location.

Companies should carefully evaluate their options and select the format most likely to lead to success.

Popular choices include the foundational structure, product-based, or a divisional model. Alternatively, you might want to adopt a hybrid model to cater to today’s hybrid consumers.

Do you use a marketing organization structure? Which model works best for you?

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25 Ways To Drive More E-commerce Store Traffic Without Buying Ads

It’s no secret that e-commerce is here to stay.

With more consumers shopping online than ever before, retailers must work hard to get noticed.

What if you don’t have the budget for ads? Are you doomed to fade into the online abyss?

Absolutely not.

Over half of consumers prefer to shop online. Great news for online retailers like you, right?

With the growth of online marketplaces and hoards of choices available to consumers, it’s tough to get the attention you need to drive traffic and revenue.

Today, I’ll share 25 e-commerce tips to get more visitors to your site—without spending a dime on paid ads.

Best of all, many of these tips are easier to implement than you might think.

What Are the Benefits of Using Non-Paid Strategies to Increase E-Commerce Website Traffic?

Many marketers focus on paid e-commerce strategy because they think it’s the only way to outshine the big brands, but that isn’t always the case.

With 95 percent of website traffic hitting the first page of Google, all the traffic you could hope for is there, waiting.

One of the most obvious benefits of non-paid e-commerce strategies is you don’t need to invest money to drive traffic. You’re not trading dollar-for-dollar; instead, you’re trading time or resources for sales.

Another benefit is focusing on non-paid traffic means building a better, easier-to-use website. According to a study done by Amazon Web Services, 88 percent of online shoppers won’t return to a site they had a bad experience on.

With all the options for e-commerce shopping, why would they?

We’re completely inundated with options. The threshold for mistakes and user experience problems is getting lower and lower.

Finally, thinking outside the box helps build a real business with long-term potential.With paid ads, as soon as you turn off your budget, your traffic will plummet.

SEO, email marketing, and on-page experience are long-term strategies that pay off over time.

25 E-Commerce Strategies to Drive Traffic (Without Paying for Ads!)

Overall e-commerce sales have grown steadily year after year and show no sign of slowing down. By 2025, e-commerce sales could hit nearly 7,400 billion dollars. If you’re having trouble getting the traffic you want, there are tons of opportunities to get a piece of the pie.

Here are some e-commerce tips you can implement today to get more traffic to your site.

1. Start a Referral Program

Leads that come from referrals convert at a 30 percent higher rate than any other marketing method. If you don’t have a referral program for your e-commerce store, it’s never too late to get started.

Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be elaborate.

Take GetResponse, for example. You get a $30 account credit for every person you refer to the software.

Offer something of value to existing customers for every customer they bring to you; it’s as simple as that!

To get started, find a referral program platform, then use these tips to drive sign-ups.

2. Build Out Your Blog

Google controls more than 92 percent of the search market, which means if you want traffic, you need to invest in SEO. Investing in a blog and delivering valuable content is one of the best e-commerce tips I can offer.

Start producing content regularly whether you have to hire someone or write everything yourself. I’m definitive proof that this strategy works.

If you don’t currently have a blog on your e-commerce website, starting one is easy. Most e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify have built-in blogging templates to help you get started.

3. Improve the On-Page Experience

Google makes it crystal clear that the on-page experience is one of the most important factors they look at when determining whether a site should rank.

On-page experience refers to (but is not limited to):

• core web vitals
• mobile optimization
• user-friendliness

To use these e-commerce tips, start by running the reports linked above. Google will offer you tips and strategies to improve your on-page experience.

Improving these factors helps increase your e-commerce traffic because your site looks better in Google’s eyes, and it’s easier for users to navigate, which keeps them coming back.

4. Build an Email List

Repeat customers spend 67 percent more than new customers—and one of the best ways to bring them back is by building an email list.

Why?

You’ve already established trust with them, and they know what you have to offer.

Take a look at this example from Birchbox:

Offering a unique promo code encourages customers to return and makes the offer feel exclusive and like they’re getting something that isn’t available to everyone.

To build an email list, try these strategies:

• Offer a small discount (10 to 15 percent) for users that sign up for your email list.
• Make your list feel exclusive by promoting new products only in your email list.
• Post teasers about an upcoming email announcement on social media to encourage followers to sign up.

5. Retarget Email Subscribers

Once you’ve built out an email list, you’ll want to retarget users based on onsite behavior. Retargeting, in this case, means sending an email to someone who has shown interest in your business but didn’t take the action you were hoping for. (It can also be used for paid ads, but in this case, we’re covering non-paid strategies.)

Abandoned cart emails are one of the most effective ways to leverage email retargeting. In fact, they’re responsible for recovering nearly 30 percent of abandoned carts.

You can also send current customers suggested products related to a previous purchase. As we already covered, it’s easier to go after customers you already have than find new ones.

Here’s a quick guide to retargeting your email subscribers:

• Look for ways to retarget users in your email marketing platform. For example, MailChimp has a retargeting email guide that walks its users through the process.
• Implement the easiest retargeting campaigns first. Generally, abandoned cart emails and recommended products are easy wins.
• Test other retargeting campaigns to see what works. For example, ask for reviews a week or so after purchase or suggest a new collection.

6. Optimize Your CTAs

Only around two percent of your web traffic will convert on the first visit, so capturing email addresses through your CTAs is crucial.

You need to experiment a bit to see what works. Even something as simple as the color of your CTA button can make a difference.

For example, Performable found that switching their CTA button from green to red boosted their conversion rate by 21 percent.

Try different CTA buttons and phrasing to see what works and test them side-by-side using A/B testing.

Don’t stop at colors, though. You can also test your CTA’s:

• copy
• placement
• font type/size
• including images
• landing page
• Offer

7. Improve Your Checkout Process

Nearly 70 percent of people abandon their cart. This can be due to hidden fees, shipping costs, too many steps, and a poor overall experience. The best e-commerce tips build on what you’re already doing, and the checkout process is a great place to start.

While people are more comfortable than ever shopping online, they also have high expectations for the process. How do you improve the process? Here are a few tips:

• Get rid of hidden fees and be upfront about pricing.
• Share shipping fees early in the process.
• Limit the number of clicks to convert.

Scandiweb did a great case study of the steps to improve their checkout experience. You don’t need to go nearly this far, but it’s a smart e-commerce strategy to implement no matter how big or small you decide to make it.

8. Develop a Rewards Program

A white paper by Altfeld shows that when selling to an existing customer, the probability of closing that sale is as high as 70 percent.

What’s the most effective way to bring customers back? Loyalty programs!

Rewarding customers for returning and doing business with you again is a brilliant and timeless strategy.

Take Sephora for example.

For every dollar spent, you earn one dollar in rewards. The more you spend, the more rewards you’re eligible for, including discounts and free shipping. It’s so simple when it’s broken down this way, but the hard part is coming up with a smart rewards program.

To set up an effective rewards program, you’ll want to:

• See what your most profitable customers have in common (location, products, interests, etc.)
• Look at data to see what drives purchases. This will help you set up a reward program. Do they like free shipping? Discounts? Access to new product lines early? Use a survey to ask customers if you aren’t sure.
• Look for e-commerce reward and loyalty tools and plugins to implement your program.

9. Add Internal Links to Your Site

I’ve mentioned SEO already, but this step focuses on internal linking within your e-commerce website. How can this improve e-commerce traffic?

Sites without proper internal linking don’t rank as high as those with a solid link-building strategy.

By creating a web of links on your site, you’re telling Google that you are an excellent resource for what people want to buy and you’re a wealth of knowledge in whatever niche it is you sell in. That will improve the user experience while also improving your worth to Google.

Here are a few tips for adding internal links:

• Identify hub pages—these are important pages you know your users want to see. Add links where it makes sense that point to these pages.
• Link to related products on your product pages. If you sell tents, link to other camping gear, for example.
• Use “breadcrumbs” in the navigation to help users quickly navigate back to core pages.
• Use easy-to-understand anchor text, like this: Here’s more information about internal linking best practices. It’s clear what you’ll get if you click the highlighted text.

10. Get Active on Social Media

Ninety-one percent of people read at least one review before making a purchase. Where is a great place to get a lot of customer reviews?

Social media, of course.

Are you using social media to drive traffic to your e-commerce store?

Are you using it as a place for customers to land if they have something positive or negative to say about your business?

You should be doing both things because it helps show customers that you’re a real business with real people and not just some brand.

Here’s how to build a social media strategy for your e-commerce business.

11. Incorporate Chat on Your Website

You need to be there for your customers. Sixty percent of people want to connect with someone during the sales process.

Remember that one time you were in a brick and mortar and wanted help finding something, but you walked around and couldn’t find anyone to help you?

How did that make you feel? Unimportant?

As people turn to e-commerce, they expect to have the same customer service experience they get in person. That means you need to be available to answer questions and assist throughout the sales process.

There are plenty of live chat software to make this process simple. Leveraging chatbot automation, which answers common questions before connecting users to a live person, can also make it more affordable.

12. Focus on Value Upfront

Your e-commerce strategy cannot revolve around you asking your customers to do things without making them feel like they’re getting the most for their time and money.

A great example of this is email marketing. We all know we need a lead magnet if we expect anyone to give us their email, right?

We’re getting to a point where just offering a product isn’t enough to make a sale.

You need to offer free shipping, free trials, fast shipping, bonus offers, and handwritten letters to drive sales.

Whatever you decide to offer, make sure it’s clear what you’re offering upfront so people can see the value before they click to buy.

This also extends to other areas of your site, such as:

• product pages
• landing pages
• CTAs
• social media posts

13. Improve Your Product Pages By Focusing on Benefits not Features

You could be losing a lot of money due to poor product descriptions.

Want to know an easy fix?

As you write about a feature, think about the benefit for customers and center that in your copy.

Look at this example from Gillette:

Every feature is tied to a benefit.

They don’t just explain what it does. It’s a razor, we know what it does, but they explain how it will make you feel.

Here are a few other ways to improve your product pages:

• Cut the clutter so users can easily focus on what matters.
• Use clear, concise calls to action to tell visitors what to do next.
• Check your page speed.
• Use high-quality product photos.
• Add social proof to build customer confidence.

14. Implement Video

Eighty-seven percent of video marketers say that video helped increase e-commerce traffic to their website.

I could do an entire guide on video e-commerce tips because that’s how important it is right now.

If you’re not embedding videos into your product pages, you’ll want to start right now.

15. Add User-Generated Content

As much as 80 percent of people say user-generated content impacts their purchasing decision.

User-generated content can be as simple as taking an image of a product in use that a reviewer left and putting it on your website.

People are more likely to trust you when they see other people enjoy your products. Here are a few other ways to leverage UGC:

• Add reviews to product pages.
• Create a branded hashtag and ask users to share their favorite products.
• Embed product pictures from users at the bottom of your website.

16. Understand Customer Personas

If you don’t know what a customer persona is, you could miss out on one of the simplest e-commerce tips.

What is a buyer persona?

It’s essentially a representation of your customer. What do they do? How do they act? How do they think? What makes them click?

If you don’t have a specific avatar that you’re marketing to in your e-commerce business, you’re potentially leaving money on the table.

17. Use Trust Signals

According to TrustedSite, lack of business legitimacy causes 50 percent of cart abandonments.

What are we talking about when we say legitimacy?

Trust.

As someone works through the purchase process, they might start to feel uneasy. Are you a real site, or a scam? Is the quality going to match their expectations?

How do you avoid mistrust?

Add trust signals to the process. These include:

• badges
• third-party verifications
• customer reviews
• testimonials
• HTTP

Adding a video of yourself or someone in the business is another great way to show customers you’re a real business.

18. Offer Free Shipping

Here’s a stat that could drastically change your e-commerce revenue: 66 percent of consumers expect free shipping on every single online purchase.

These people expect you to pay the cost of shipping their products no matter how much they spend. You can thank Amazon for that.

That said, offering free shipping isn’t the revenue buster you think. As an added bonus, if you do everything else right on this list, you’ve likely secured yourself that customer.

There are a few ways to make free shipping work for you:

• Up your prices to cover the shipping cost, then make it “free.”
• Offer free shipping as a loyalty program reward.
• Ask for an email address in exchange for free shipping.
• Offer free shipping only for purchases over a certain amount.

19. Keep User Data Safe (and Make Sure Your Customers Know It)

This e-commerce tip goes hand-in-hand with trust signals, but it’s important on its own.

E-commerce sites collect a lot of data about their customers, including onsite actions, banking or card information, addresses, and potentially even social security numbers on your website.

What are you doing to protect this information?

Here are a few ways to keep your customer’s information safe:

• have an SSL certificate
• track all orders
• require strong passwords
• make sure your data storage is encrypted

Make sure you let your customers know that you’re doing all of this. When asking them to input sensitive information, include all the steps you take to protect their data.

20. Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is when you pair up with another brand or influencer to help them promote your products.

We see this frequently on platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram.

With the influencer marketing market growing to 16.4 billion in 2022, the potential is there.

Start reaching out to influencers in your niche and see if they sell endorsements. Send them free products to test out.

Dan-Os Seasoning is a great success story on TikTok, and now influencers all over the platform are using it in their cooking videos.

21. Research, Test, and Pivot

At this point, you’ve read through 20 e-commerce tips; all of which will help you drive more traffic to your site and convert at a higher rate.

If you want to succeed, you need to implement these strategies. However, not all strategies will work for every brand. Or they might work, but with a different approach.

For example, an e-commerce fashion website might get better results using influencers than a B2B manufacturing e-commerce company.

The only way to know is to research, test, and pivot. If something doesn’t work for your audience, try something new. It’s the only way to keep growing.

22. Create a Sense of Urgency

Visitors who leave your site without purchasing rarely complete the sale.

Urgency offers a compelling reason to complete the purchase now.

Maybe it’s “Act now! Quantities are low!” or “Buy now for free shipping!” or “This is a limited time offer!”

You can approach it from various angles, as long as the feeling of “don’t miss out on this” is created with your visitor.

Look at this example from American Apparel:

Right there in red font, they warn shoppers that they are about to run out of this item.

There are so many ways to create urgency through exclusivity and FOMO, including:

• Use popups to show other users who have made purchases.
• Send “last chance” emails.
• Add a shopping cart timer.
• Display limited stock (like American apparel.)

23. Upsell the Customers You Have

Many smaller e-commerce stores ignore one of their arsenal’s most accessible selling weapons: upselling.

There is a false impression that it isn’t worth the effort, but that’s not the case.

Upselling can increase average order value, which adds up over time.

The very first year that Amazon tested upselling on their platform, they increased sales by 35 percent.

Here are a few ways to increase upsells:

• offer related product sections on product pages.
• suggest products on the checkout page.
• offer free shipping for orders over a specific amount, say $25 or $50

24. Launch New Products

According to Nielsen, 63 percent of buyers like it when manufacturers offer new products. What does this mean for you as an e-commerce store owner?

You need to launch new products and make innovations in your industry regularly. The best e-commerce tip I can offer you is to focus on making a difference for people.

See what the competition is doing and figure out ways that you can take it to the next level.

If you don’t manufacture your products, there are still ways to innovate.

For example, if you’re selling home improvement products, perhaps you could find a way to bundle multiple items together? You could even create a bundle subscription box.

25. Spend Your Money Elsewhere

While this whole list of e-commerce tips focuses on how “not” to spend money, perhaps you could take whatever you would spend on paid ads and spend it somewhere else.

Spend it on outsourcing high-quality blog content, SEO strategy, or influencer marketing.

Every business should have a marketing budget regardless of how big or small it is. If you’re currently spending money on paid ads, think about what else you could do with that budget and experiment with other paid options.

E-Commerce Tips Frequently Asked Questions

How can I increase my e-commerce website traffic quickly?

Social media and influencer marketing are the two fastest ways to get more e-commerce traffic. Other methods like SEO are more of a long-term solution.

What percent of my e-commerce traffic should be from non-paid sources?

In years past, organic traffic had some of the highest rates of conversion simply because people are finding you naturally. This means you’re likely a solution to a problem the visitor has. It’s tough to put an exact number on this though because every business is different. However, you can succeed with nothing but paid traffic if your strategy allows for it.

How do I track my e-commerce website's traffic?

There are many ways to track e-commerce traffic. You can use your site’s Google Search Console dashboard as well as tools like SimilarWeb and Ahrefs.

What is organic traffic to an e-commerce website?

Organic traffic is website visitors that find your site without the use of paid advertisements, often by searching on sites like Google or Bing.

Conclusion: E-Commerce Tips

As you read through these 25 e-commerce tips, which ones resonated with you the most? Do you feel more equipped to drive traffic to your store?

The most important thing to understand is that you don’t have to do all of these things perfectly, you just need to gradually implement them to see results.

Figure out what is currently wrong in your e-commerce store and identify the low-hanging fruit. Perhaps you simply need to ramp up blog content or update your checkout process. Most of those changes can be completed in a few days or weeks.

With all of these tips and tricks available to you, the possibilities are endless.

What are some of the ways you boost e-commerce sales without spending money on ads?

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